Bad Day
by CrystalOfEllinon
Summary: A mission goes south, and one of our dear ninja does NOT have a good day. M for language and violence. Lots of violence.
1. Chapter 1

Because I gave Snake Eyes his own fic of ninja awesomeness, I felt obligated to do the same for Storm Shadow. This has been in my head for awhile now. Will be a couple of chapters, not really sure how many.

* * *

Jaye gripped her sidearm and flattened herself against the floor; the Crimson Guard's boots clumped past her hiding place under a sofa. She relaxed infinitesimally as the footsteps faded.

She wormed her way out of the narrow space; Breaker emerged from his cramped hiding spot under Tomax (or maybe Xamot's) desk. The communications expert rolled his neck; Jaye distinctly heard the crackle of joints.

"Ow. I thought he'd never leave." Breaker kept his voice soft, but the sentiment was heartfelt. Jaye resumed her guard position at the office door, and Breaker returned to clicking furiously at the top-of-the-line laptop on the desk. "Damn. They really don't skimp on the security programs."

"Can you break into it?"

A discreet snort. "Already done…woah. _Nice_." A few more key clicks, and the tech slid a disc into the drive and started downloading files.

"What?" Jay glanced over her shoulder.

"Their computer background…Maxim's Miss March, if I'm not mistaken." Breaker grinned at the expression on her face. "Oh, and I found the briefings too."

Jaye sighed. "Men."

There was a very soft, vaguely disgusted snort just behind her. Jaye spun, her gun coming up, but the figure inches behind her leaned easily out of the way as she struck for his temple with the butt of the gun. "_Storm!" _She lowered her weapon. "Don't _do_ that. Warn me before you sneak up on me!"

The ninja glared at her. When he spoke, it was very softly. "Snuck? I could have tied bells to myself and walked right up to you. You both do way too much talking on stealth missions…you ought to use sign instead. Are you almost done?"

"Yeah." Breaker extracted the disc from the computer and tucked it away securely in a reinforced titanium case. He grinned at the rather irritated ninja; Storm had protested when he'd found out that Jaye and Breaker were going to be assigned to the information snatching raid on Tomax and Xamot's headquarters. The ninja had insisted that he would be better off alone.

However, their intel had pointed towards the information Hawk wanted being encrypted, and that meant Breaker had to come. Jaye had been inserted as a lowly secretary, beneath the Twin's notice, and she'd secured the tech entry to the office complex, where they'd both hid until the building emptied for the night.

Storm Shadow had gained entry after dark, with the ease that only a ninja could pull off. His face was too well known to slip into the building with the rest of the workers, but then Jaye suspected that he preferred to break in his own way anyways.

*Good.* Storm pointedly used ASL instead of speaking. *The guard is changing in twenty three minutes; that'll be your best chance to slip out. I found two guards about your sizes…here.* The ninja dropped a bundle on the floor next to Jaye.

Jaye eyed it. "Do I want to know what you did to them?"

A slow grin. *Sign, Jaye…and no, you do not. Do you know where the guard station is?*

Jaye nodded and tugged the smaller of the two uniforms on over her normal clothes; it was, scarily enough, a perfect fit. Breaker finished shutting the computer back down and pulled on the larger uniform. It also fit unsettlingly well. Both of them eyed Storm Shadow warily. The ninja just smirked, slid out the door, jumped, and vanished into the shadows of the office ceiling.

"He creeps me out sometimes." Breaker muttered.

"You and everyone else." Jaye slid the Crimson Guard mask on. "Let's go."

Things went fine for about ten minutes. Then they rounded a corner and ran face-to-face into a squad of three guards. The leader narrowed his eyes.

"Smithton? Abrams? This isn't your sector. Remove masks and identi..._ghhhkk_"

The man fell backwards, clawing at the loop of wire around his throat. Storm Shadow jerked the man back, a knee in the small of his back, and there was a nasty 'crack'. Jaye drew her knife and lunged for the next man as the two were reaching for their sidearms; she got the blade into the man's throat before he could react. A gunshot, and she tensed.

The last guard, looking rather surprised, toppled. Breaker lowered his weapon. "I'm guessing we should probably move."

"You think?" Storm Shadow was coiling his garrote and slipping it away into the top of his _tabi._ He opened the nearest door, revealing a tiny office. "Shove them in here. It'll buy us a few minutes." He tore the shirt off of the man Jaye had knifed and shoved it into the throat wound. When he dragged the corpse into hiding, it didn't leave a blood trail. Jaye raised her eyebrows; that was a nice trick.

"I thought we weren't supposed to talk?" Breaker raised an eyebrow.

"Discharging firearms has made that rather moot." As if to reinforce the ninja's point, a distant alarm started screeching. The ninja scowled. "I _told_ Hawk that he should have sent me alone. Follow me; I know the quickest way out."

They took off. They ran into one other patrol, this time a search party of five men. Storm Shadow launched himself onto the first two with _extreme_ prejudice; Jaye really thought that the Geneva laws must technically make using a knife that way illegal.

The other three were dealt with by her and Breaker. Storm Shadow listened, and this time didn't bother hiding the bodies, instead beckoning them after him and taking off at a flat-out sprint. Figuring that that _couldn't_ mean anything good, Jaye and Breaker followed at speed.

Sure enough, bare seconds after rounding the corner she heard outraged shouts behind her. The three Joes tore off with speed that would impress even BeachHead.

A few quick turns and a stairwell later, and they were bursting out into the parking garage through a maintenance entrance. There was a shout from a guard shack; Storm Shadow veered off for a few seconds. There was a yelp, a heavy thump, and Storm emerged from the guard post a moment later.

They seemed to have lost their pursuit. Jaye didn't hear feet pounding after them any longer. They headed for the ground level of the parking garage. From there, it was only a few blocks to their car, and then they'd be away scot free…

They rounded a corner to find about thirty assault rifles leveled at their faces. The detachment of Crimson Guards glared at them; Jaye raised her hands slowly. Breaker did the same. Storm Shadow, of course, was nowhere to be seen. Jaye hoped very hard that the ninja was setting himself up for maximum possible damage to the men they were facing.

The apparent leader of the guards eyed the ceiling. "Storm Shadow!"

There was no reply. The man repeated the ninja's name, again with absolutely no results. The Crimson Guard scowled. "Kill any of my men, and they die instantly. Kill me, and they die instantly. Move for them, and they die instantly. Come out where I can see you in five seconds, or they die instantly. Men, if any of these things happen, shoot them before you do anything else, and that is and order. Five…four…three…_two…_"

Storm Shadow dropped from the ceiling and landed just in front of the other two Joes. He was looking murderous, and the glare he leveled at the Crimson Guards really should have spontaneously combusted the lot of them.

The Crimson Guard commander smiled. "Excellent. If he twitches wrong, blast all three of them into oblivion. I doubt you can dodge thirty AK's at once, ninja…and even if you can, they can't."

"I've got it. You've got us." Storm Shadow glared. "I _told_ Hawk that he should have sent me alone...they'd never have _seen_ me."

"What are you going to do with us, then?" Jaye asked.

The Crimson Guard commander pulled an odd-looking gun from the back of his belt. "Storm Shadow, I am going to tranquilize you. Dodge, and they both die…all three of you are going to the Twins." A wide grin. "I am _so_ getting a pay raise and a promotion out of this."

Storm hissed angrily but didn't move. There was a little puff, and a small dart hit the ninja in the arm. He staggered almost instantly, and went to his knees.

"You." His voice was slurred. He was glaring at the Crimson Guard commander. "I'll remember you…your head is _mine."_

He slumped to the ground, hitting the cement hard enough to make Jaye wince. This was _not _good.

"Disarm him." The Crimson Guard commander motioned one of his men forwards. "_Thoroughly._ You, disarm the other two and put them in cuffs. Try anything, and all three of you die instantly."

Jaye's guns and several assorted knives were confiscated. Breaker was similarly disarmed. Storm Shadow took considerably longer to search. By the time the Crimson Guard was finished, he'd removed the ninja's swords, eighteen throwing stars, six knives of varying sizes, two dozen throwing spikes, the garrote, a blowgun and a dozen presumably-poisoned darts carefully folded into a packet, twelve smoke bombs, a lockpick kit and eight loose picks, a communicator, and a set of climbing claws. His mask was removed too, apparently because of the comm wire stitched to the cloth.

"Doesn't mess around, does he?" The Crimson Guard commander shook his head. "Take them all to detention. Keep the ninja separate."

A rifle butt cracked into Jaye's temple, and everything went dark.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again, she was staring at a poorly lit cell block ceiling. She groaned, and Breaker's slightly-battered face appeared in her field of view. "Hey. I was starting to worry about you."

Jaye sat up, massaging a really beautiful lump on her head. "Ow. Where are we?"

"No idea." The tech sighed. "They knocked me out too."

"Where's…"

Breaker pointed. The cells they were in were barred on three sides, with the cinderblock wall forming the back. Storm Shadow had been unceremoniously dumped in the cell next to theirs; the ninja was cuffed hand and foot, and then had been cuffed hand _to_ foot. He was still out cold.

"He is _not _going to be happy when he wakes up." Jaye winced. "That doesn't look comfortable." She sighed. "How long have you been awake?"

"A little while." Breaker stood and leaned against the bars. "Long enough to know that someone comes through every hour to check on us."

Jaye stood. Her spine popped; she must have been out for awhile. "Well, we've missed our check in, so they'll know something happened by now. If we're lucky, they'll already have Snake on a transport."

There was a groan from the cell next to them. Both Joes swiveled in time to see Storm Shadow stir and then roll to his knees, his arms twisted back at an angle that looked distinctly painful by his restraints. The ninja looked very much the worse for the wear; the Crimson Guards hadn't apparently been particularly gentle to him during transport.

"Dead." He said, apparently to thin air. "_All_ of them."

"How are you feeling?" Jaye moved over to the shared wall of bars between their cells.

That earned her a glare. "Just _fantastic_." There was more sarcasm crammed into that last word than Jaye had thought possible. The ninja glanced around. "We're in the basement. This is the Twin's private detention facility."

Breaker blinked. "A dungeon in an office building?"

Jaye shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat, I guess. We've missed our check-in, Storm, so help should be coming. I'd guess that Hawk will send Snake, and maybe Scarlett. Probably some of the others as well."

Storm Shadow didn't answer. He was working at his restraints. Breaker leaned against the bars between their cells and watched with interest. Jaye peered at the ninja and winced as she saw a thumb joint pop _sideways._ The ninja pulled and wiggled, and his hand slid free. It looked like he lost some skin off of his knuckles, but still.

The other hand joined the first in freedom a few moments later. Storm uncurled from his awkward position with a sigh of relief and rolled his shoulders.

"Better." He shook his hands, which had apparently either popped back into place or re-grown bones. "_Much_ better." The ninja examined the cuffs around his ankles, and reached into his sleeve. He scowled, and checked his other sleeve. This search also came up empty, and Storm's scowl darkened. "Thorough, weren't they?" The ninja combed his fingers through the hair just over his left ear, and grinned. "Not thorough enough, though." He extracted what appeared to be an ordinary bobby pin, twisted the thin piece of metal in half, bent one tip at a right angle, and proceeded to pick open the locks on his ankle cuffs in roughly five and a half seconds.

Breaker grinned. "I should tell Ripcord and Shipwreck that you put your hair up like a girl...unless you want to buy me a new case of gum. I'm almost out."

Storm snorted. "If you're going to disparage my methods, I'll leave your ungrateful backside there when I break us out. And don't try to blackmail the master. You familiar with a little thing called 'mutual assured destruction?' I know about Tijuana."

Breaker went pale. Jaye blinked. "Huh?"

"He knows." Storm stood and stretched. "Which one of you has been awake the longest?"

"How'd you know we were unconscious?" Breaker, apparently eager for a distraction from whatever unknown incident Tijuana involved, jumped at the subject change.

"You're both sporting really lovely goose eggs. I made an educated guess."

"Oh." Breaker winced and rubbed the lump on his head. "I have. A guard comes through every hour."

"When was the last one?"

Breaker seemed to be thinking. "Probably thirty, thirty-five minutes ago."

"Good." The ninja moved to the cell door and examined the lock. "Well well…they actually changed the locks after I left. Combination padlocks. I'm impressed." Another few moments passed, and Storm suddenly eyed the door at the end of the cell block. A blur of motion, and the ninja was kneeling on the floor again, cuffs looped loosely around wrists and ankles.

Jaye and Breaker, well familiar with the ninja's uncanny hearing, eyed the door. A few minutes later, a Crimson Guard strode in, stumping down to eye the prisoners.

"All awake?" The man grinned. "Tamox and Xamot are on their way; they're going to sell you to Cobra Commander for a nice profit. Especially you." This was aimed at the ninja. "We're all getting pay raises for taking you alive; I really ought to thank you."

The ninja bared his teeth in an expression that only resembled a smile in the loosest sense of the word. "I'm glad then that I deprived some of your friends of the opportunity to profit off of me. How many of you have I killed? Six?"

The guard glared. "Shut it."

"You know a man named Abrams?" The ninja grinned. "Oh, you _did_…your heart rate just spiked. I strangled him to death. He _begged…_or tried to. My arm was kind of crushing his throat at the moment, so it really didn't work too well."

The Crimson Guard slammed a fist against the bars. "I wouldn't be talking like that if I was chained up, fuckface. Just a warning."

"How about a woman, last name Smithton?" The ninja laughed mirthlessly, and it actually sent a chill down Jaye's spine. "She fought harder than Abrams, but there's not much you can do when you've got enough poison to drop three men in your blood."

"If I hadn't been ordered to leave you alone…"

"Did you find the one I shoved in the office? The one with the broken neck? He died _fast._ The two I knifed in the hall took longer, and the shorter one must have been _hurting_ before he died_._ At least if I did it right, and I _always_ do."

"Ninja, your ass is mine." The Crimson Guard was snarling. He fumbled with the padlock on Storm Shadow's cell. "I'll leave you alive for the bosses...barely."

Storm Shadow grinned. "Oh, don't spare me. Did you see what I did to your friend in the guard shack? He can _literally_ watch his own back now."

The cell door flew open. The Crimson Guard lunged for the apparently restrained ninja.

There was a blur of motion. Storm Shadow was on his feet, there was a sharp crack, and the Crimson Guard slumped. Jaye blinked; the man's nose was a ruin. She had been in enough hand to hand classes to recognize the strike; up and into the nose, driving slivers of bone into the brain. She'd never seen it done so quickly, however.

Storm searched the body, came up with a handgun, a rifle, an extra clip for each, and a bowie knife. He stepped over the corpse, calmly sauntered out of his cell, and started fiddling with the lock on Jaye and Breaker's cell.

A few long minutes later, there was a soft 'click'. Storm handed them the guns; Jaye took the rifle and Breaker took the sidearm. The ninja kept the knife.

"Right." Storm Shadow eyed the pair of them. "I know where they keep items confiscated from prisoners. I don't know about you two, but I want my things back. It'd take weeks to get a new pair of swords, and I'm sure Hawk wants his intel, too. I also would very much like to get my hands on the Crimson Guard who tranked me; I still have a headache. Plus, if Snake Eyes had to save me from a cell as pathetic as this in a damn office building, I'd never hear the end of it."

"Sounds good." Jaye checked her rifle. "We'll follow your lead."

Breaker ejected the clip from his pistol, checking to see how full the magazine was. "If they broke our communicators, I am going to shoot someone. Those were _brand_ new."

"Good. Try to keep up." Looking very much ready to kill something, Storm stalked off. "I hope they try to stop me...this has _not_ been a good day."

Well, Storm Shadow is pissy and armed, Jaye and Breaker are armed and also ready to kill something, and there are un-stabbed Crimson Guards wandering around. I promise I've been working on 'arrows' and a few other requested fics as well, but this snuck into my head and has been refusing to leave me alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Keeping up with an angry ninja, Jaye soon found, was difficult. Not that he was faster than her and Breaker…though, to be fair, Jaye had seen Tommy run flat-out and knew that the ninja could outdistance Breaker with relative ease, though she could usually keep up for at least the first few miles or so. No, the problem was keeping track of him; Storm wasn't trying too hard to make himself invisible, thank God. If he had been, they wouldn't have had a chance of following him. Actually, Jaye suspected that Tommy thought the occasional glimpse of him that they caught was as obvious as he could possibly get while still scouting ahead.

The ninja appeared in front of them in a narrow stretch of hall. He glanced back, apparently checking to make sure they were keeping up, and then suddenly whipped around and perked up. Jaye was reminded strongly of her parent's cat when it spotted a bird.

She blinked, and almost missed the flash of white _tabi_ vanishing into the exposed ducts and conduits on the ceiling of the basement complex. How the _hell_ had he got up the wall so fast, anyways?

Several seconds later, just as she and Breaker were about to reach a fork in the hallway, there was a heavy _thud_, a strangled sort of choking noise, and an abruptly cut off grunt of pain. She and Breaker approached cautiously, peeking around the corner and ready to duck back into cover at a moment's notice.

They found two very dead and one almost dead Crimson Guard. The almost-dead man was writhing weakly on the floor, choking and struggling to breathe through a sliced trachea. Even as they watched, Storm Shadow disengaged his knife from the ribs of the third man, turned to the twitching form on the floor, planted a foot on the bloodied forehead, and with a sharp motion twisted the skull around. There was a dull crunching noise, and the man went limp.

Breaker winced. "Jesus."

Jaye shook her head. "I think he's mad."

Storm Shadow didn't turn. "That was mercy. If I was really feeling sadistic, I would have let him drown in his own blood." The ninja crouched, fished through the man's pockets, and flipped another nine mil clip to Breaker. The tech caught it as the ninja wiped blood off of his knife and stood. "That one has an AK, Jaye." The ninja pointed to a rather surprised looking corpse with its head tilted at an unnatural angle.

Jaye moved over and popped the magazine out of the assault rifle, tucking it into the back of her belt. "How much further to our gear?"

"Up a floor." The knife slid away into Storm's belt. "The stairwell is just down this hall. Fourth door on the left." He tilted his head and half closed his eyes. "There isn't anyone on the stairwell right now." A frown. "But there are guards in the halls above us…and they're nervous. The one I left in my cell must have missed his check in. They know something is up. I'm not sure exactly how many, though." The frown deepened. "Three for sure. There might be more, but just a little too far for me to pick up on their heartbeats."

"Show off." Breaker muttered. "Damn radar ears."

Storm Shadow ignored the comment, stepped over a guard, and headed down the hall. Jaye and Breaker jogged to catch up.

The stairwell was behind the promised door. A floor up, and Storm listened at the door. He stepped back and motioned the two of them forwards.

*Three heading down the hall towards us from the right.* His fingers were moving almost too quickly for them to follow. *Alert and nervous. If we break cover, you'll get lit up, but I can take them if you keep under cover. Stay here and stay quiet.*

Jaye eyed him. "Or..." Before he could stop her, she narrowed her eyes, and edged over to the door. She cracked it barely open, glanced around to aim, and put a burst of AK-47 rounds right through three very surprised Crimson Guards.

Storm Shadow blinked. "I suppose that works too." He listened for a moment before nodding. "No one heading this way. Come on."

He slid out into the hallway. Jaye and Breaker hurried to keep up. A short distance down the hall, the ninja paused before rounding a corner and the other two Joes stopped just behind him. He held up two fingers, pointed to the left, and motioned for them to stay put.

In response, Breaker dropped low, glanced around the corner, and squeezed off a shot. There was a heavy thump, and a yell of alarm. Storm Shadow sighed, drew his knife, and whipped it down the hall. There was a second heavy thump as another body hit the floor.

"You're not stealing all the kills." The tech said calmly by way of explanation as the ninja glared at him. Storm shook his head and went to retrieve his knife from the Crimson Guard's throat.

An examination of the door the two men had been standing guard over revealed a high tech locking mechanism on a heavy-duty door plated in steel. Storm Shadow examined the lock, frowned and glanced up at the ceiling.

Jaye had worked with ninja long enough to know that both Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow viewed suspended ceilings more or less as a private expressway. When Storm edged one of the tiles up, however, the space above the tiles was revealed to be only a few inches deep. The ninja shook his head, replaced the tile, and moved slightly down the hall. He put his ear to the wall, and began tapping along the surface.

Breaker and Jaye both blinked in confusion. "What…" Breaker began.

Storm Shadow stepped back, settled into a stable stance, and drove a side kick into the wall. There was a crunch, a puff of drywall dust, and a sizable hole appeared. The ninja repeated the kick twice, then calmly pulled a few loose chunks out of his way and wriggled easily through the hole.

The door opened from the inside a moment later. Storm was looking rather smug, and grinned at the expressions on their faces. "Common mistake. Fortify the door, but don't think about the surrounding structure. Drywall and lathwork aren't hard to break through."

"Right." Jaye managed.

Their gear was in large plastic totes on tall metal shelving units crammed into the small room. There were quite a few other totes full of various items presumably confiscated from prisoners or staff; Jaye really didn't want to think about how many people the Twins must have 'entertained' here.

Storm Shadow's grin when he got his hands back on his small arsenal of weaponry was blinding. He checked over everything with a critical eye as he slid weapons and tools back into their hiding places on his person. Jaye and Breaker checked their firearms and tucked their much smaller collection of knives away.

The ninja tugged his mask back on at just about the time Breaker groaned. Both Storm Shadow and Jaye looked at him.

"Our communicators…they're gone." The tech sounded furious.

"The wire from my mask is too." Storm Shadow frowned. "You'll have to change our codes again."

"Those were _brand new_!" Breaker growled. "A week old!"

Storm finished settling his swords on his back and eyed Breaker, ignoring the tech's outrage over his lost equipment. "Do you still have the disc?"

"Yeah." Breaker picked the small square titanium case out of the bottom of the tote and pressed his thumb against the lock. A beep, and the case popped open. Breaker examined the disc minutely. "Intact. Left the intel, took our replaceable electronics…idiots."

"Good. I was really hoping that I didn't have to go and steal the whole damned computer." Storm Shadow stalked towards the door, then paused mid-stride. The ninja tilted his head and closed his eyes, which generally meant that he was straining to hear something very distant and faint. Breaker and Jaye automatically froze, trying not to breathe too loudly.

When the ninja opened his eyes again, there was a truly wicked gleam in his eyes. "They're setting an ambush for us."

Both of the other Joes blinked. "How is that good?" Breaker ventured.

"One floor up is ground level and the lobby. From the sounds of it, they're going to try and repeat their previously successful tactic of ambushing us in strength. The insulting thing is that they seem to think I couldn't get us out without using the main doors." The ninja shook his head. "Idiots...the main lobby? _Really?_"

He eyed Breaker and Jaye. "I can get you out through a window or one of the staff entrances that they apparently don't think I know about. I have some unfinished business to attend to in the lobby, however. I'll get you clear, finish up here, and then catch you up."

Jaye frowned. "Why, exactly, do you need to murder the lot of them?"

"Not all of them. One." The ninja scowled. "I promised him his head would be mine. I _keep_ my promises. Any of the others who get in my way will be dealt with too, of course."

Breaker and Jaye both glared. "Do you seriously think we're going to leave you behind?" Breaker shook his head.

The ninja glared right back. "You'd be hindering me more then helping. This kind of strike is what I _do_. I'd never have been caught if they hadn't threatened to kill you two. I don't need to worry about you while I'm working."

Jaye opened her mouth to argue, considered, and shut it again. As much as she disliked the idea, he was right; if he did insist on going after the Crimson Guard who'd royally pissed him off, she and Breaker really couldn't offer the ninja much in the way of support. She knew that the ninja was more than capable of clearing a building on his own; there really wasn't much cause to worry about him if he was left to his own devices against regular infantry troops.

Still, she didn't like leaving _anyone _behind, however temporarily and however capable they might be. She planted her hands on her hips and glared. Breaker, obviously just as reluctant as she was to go along with the plan, folded his arms. "Storm..."

The ninja narrowed his eyes. "I'll make that an order if I have to."

Damn. Jaye sighed. Breaker cursed softly. Technically, Storm was the ranking soldier on this op. Generally, the ninja didn't much care about rank; he was well known for more or less doing whatever he wanted to, taking full advantage of the general exception made by the brass for anything ninja related. Sure, he'd take orders from Hawk, and from Duke, Flint, and BeachHead if it suited him…but that was more because the ninja had sworn service to Hawk, and Hawk had instructed him to listen at least occasionally to the other G.I. Joe officers than due to any rank. Storm Shadow was a ninja first, a soldier second…and ninja were a horribly independent sort.

But she and Breaker _were_ soldiers first and foremost, and disobeying an order from someone who ranked them ran counter to years of ingrained habit. And he knew it.

"That's a low blow." She said frankly.

"Don't care." Storm was still giving them that level, narrow-eyed look that meant he wasn't going to budge on the subject. "This is for your own good. I know what I'm doing, and there's really no way that either of you could help. You'd be more than likely to get a bullet or two in you, actually. Get the intel out and see if you can't get a line to the Pit. I'll be fine, and I'll be along after I finish up here."

He grinned suddenly, his mask crinkling. "Besides, you really don't want to see what I'm going to do to that man. It'll violate at least three of the Geneva laws."

"You scare me." Breaker said frankly.

"Good. Means I'm doing my job right." Storm Shadow glided towards the door. "Talking time is done. Let's go."

They followed the ninja obediently. He led them back to the stairwell, and up another story. From there, it was down two hallways and he was testing the handle on one of the outer offices. It was locked, which slowed the ninja by all of a few seconds.

There was a small window in the tiny office. Storm waited as Jaye and Breaker wiggled through. Breaker paused just outside to look back in at the ninja. "I still don't like this, man."

Storm just flicked a hand at them. "More running, less talking. I'll keep them distracted in here."

Reluctantly, they obeyed.


	3. Chapter 3

Edwin Astire, called 'Eddie' by his friends and 'sir' by the men of Crimson Guard squad #1228, had been doing his job very well for a very long time. He was well aware that he was viewed as a 'bad guy' by most governments worldwide, but he really didn't care. The Twins paid well, the respect he got on the street was nice, the uniforms were snazzy, and he'd always been more than ready to solve a disagreement with excessive violence anyways. Automatic weapons just made bullying more _fun._

He was feeling particularly smug about the successful op earlier in the night, for which he had been promised both a substantial pay raise and a promotion. If he was lucky, he might even be able to parlay his success into a high-up command position in Cobra; he'd worked for the Commander before, seeing as the Twins worked for the terrorist organization on a not-infrequent basis. While the man was a little…_strange_ was probably the best word, and he could be caustic to people who displeased him, the pay was phenomenal, and the position of power wasn't unattractive either.

Honestly, Eddie thought smugly as he lit a cigarette, apprehending the fabled ninja Storm Shadow hadn't been too difficult. He'd seen the man once or twice when the ninja had still been in the employ of the Commander, though he himself had always been in the background and he doubted the assassin had ever even noticed him. When he'd found the almost inspiringly efficiently dispatched bodies of a few of his men, he'd known that there was a ninja around. No bullets, though, which meant that it wasn't likely to be the devil in black…Snake Eyes, that was what they called him.

He blew a smoke ring, feeling quite pleased with himself. Honor. It was a stupid, pointless thing, really. If Eddie had been faced with the option of capture or sacrificing his teammates, he would have hightailed it the hell out of there and let the idiots slow and stupid enough to get caught fend for themselves. Hell, he'd _done _it before. He'd gambled on the ninja being too honorable to do the same, and he'd been right.

He scowled slightly. Should have searched the damned ninja himself, but to tell the truth he hadn't been crazy about getting within the man's reach, even sedated. Ninja were a tricky sort, and just in case he'd been faking…well, Eddie hadn't survived this long in a job with a low retirement rate by being overly bold. But they must have missed something, because the Joes were quite obviously loose again, and there was exactly one man who could have gotten them out of those cells.

Well, holding the other two at gunpoint had worked once, and as the saying went, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. He'd locked down the ground floor, and posted small detachments of guards at each of the staff entrances. His main force of twenty men, however, was in the main lobby. The ninja could probably get out without being seen, but the other two would slow him.

Still…Eddie dropped the butt of his cigarette on the tile floor and ground it out with one heel. He glanced around nervously for the eighth time in the last minute. When the ninja had looked him in the eye and promised him death, he had seemed very, very serious, and the look on what little face Eddie had been able to see with that creepy mask had been absolute _murder._

He shook himself. The lobby was brightly lit, with high, solid ceilings, and he had twenty trained gunmen around him. A rat couldn't get in here without getting shot, let alone a grown man. Besides, the bosses were en route with a large detachment of reinforcements, so if they could hold out a few hours it would be over.

There was a sudden _pop_ and a tinkle of broken glass. Eddie blinked up at the ceiling, his assault rifle raised. The room dimmed; one of the lights had just shattered. Nerves rose again; Eddie forcibly calmed himself. One light could be a simple blown fuse. Don't lose your head, man.

Then the one right over his head went, raining glass shards down on his head and dropping the total working lights in the room down to two. Something heavier than a sliver of glass bounced off the toe of his boot. Eddie glanced down.

It was a black metal spike, some four inches long, with very sharp points.

Oh, shit.

"IT'S HIM!" He bellowed. "Tranquilizer guns if feasible, but don't hesitate to kill!"  
A third light went. "Sir, I don't see anything!" One of the younger Crimson Guards in his squad was looking around in confusion.

"It's a damned ninja, you idiot! Check anything that could provide cover! Cover each other, and DO NOT close to hand to hand with him! HURRY!" Fuck, if they had to fight in the dark, they'd be slaughtered…

"Where are those missiles coming from? I didn't hear anythi… _nng…"_

A man who'd been checking points of cover along the wall hit the floor, clutching at what had once been his left eye, and was now bleeding profusely around the barely-protruding tip of another of the ominous black throwing spikes. He wasn't breathing.

Eddie took stock of where the man had gone down. "He's somewhere by the west wall…I'm guessing behind the reception desk. Forget tranquilizers, shoot to kill."

It was about then that the last light went. Eddie felt cold fear closing icy-cold around his belly; the only light now was what little found its way in off the street through the big glass doors. He blinked furiously, willing his eyes to adapt to the dark, but all he could see for the first few moments was blackness.

There was a frenzied burst of gunfire somewhere to his left. The gunfire cut off, and there was a short, terrified screech of pain, then silence.

Eddie squinted; his eyes were starting to adapt, and he could make out vague shapes now. Disturbingly, there were at least eight man-sized shapes lying unmoving on the floor. He blinked again, backing into the wall, bringing his rifle up to his shoulder, searching frantically for any blur that might, possibly, be a ninja.

A flurry of sudden motion to his right. He snapped his rifle around just in time to see the dim light flicker off what looked like a sword blade, and another man dropped. Eddie squeezed the trigger, but the shape with the sword was gone, and his fire instead hit one of his own men.

A few more bursts of gunfire, but none seemed to be even close to the elusive Storm Shadow. There were at least fifteen of his men down now, and it had been all of about twenty seconds since the lights had gone down.

Eddie started edging sideways, towards the doors. If he could get outside…well, the parking lot out front was well lit, and he'd at least have a better chance.

Then something detached itself from the shadow of a potted ficus tree a few feet to his left, and before he could bring a weapon to bear on it his rifle was wrenched aside and up, and twisted neatly out of his hands before his brain could even process the fact that the shadow had _moved_. His finger, trapped by the trigger guard, broke with a wet snap. The pain was immediate.

He went automatically for his sidearm, and this time he discovered that a broken finger really was fairly insignificant pain when the ninja calmly slid behind him, seized the offending wrist, and almost casually broke his elbow. He yelped, tried to move his fingers, and whimpered.

A blow to the back of his knees sent him to the floor. A very sharp blade lifted under his chin. He tried not to swallow.

A very soft voice spoke right in his ear. "If you ever have an enemy ninja at your mercy, kill him. You won't get a second chance."

Eddie was shaking. "I've got a wife…kids…"

A soft laugh. "No, you don't."

Shit. Eddie couldn't even begin to understand how the ninja knew he was lying, but he made one last final effort to save his skin. "I've got money saved up…"

The sword across his neck lifted. Eddie sucked a breath, tried to spin, tried to take out the ninja's legs, tried to do _something._

The sword found his neck again, this time moving very quickly. Storm Shadow kept his weapons extremely sharp; his swords could cut human skin and muscle like butter. Bone also provided very little resistance. Death was instantaneous; Eddie, had he known just how slow and painful a ninja could make a death, would have appreciated the mercy.

Leaving the headless body where it fell, Storm flicked the blood from his swords, sheathed them, and slid silently and invisibly off, leaving the surviving five Crimson Guards to sweat nervously until it became apparent that they'd gotten _extremely_ lucky.

* * *

Jaye listened with half an ear as Breaker talked into one of the spare communicators they'd had in the back of their battered old van. They'd been sitting here for half an hour now. Breaker had gotten a line to the Pit after some effort, and Flint had sounded very, very relieved to hear the tech and Jaye. Jaye had to admit that it was good to hear Dash's voice, too.

"So, where are you now?" Flint hadn't sounded too surprised to hear about Storm's insistence on staying behind long enough to "take care of business". "I've got Wild Bill flying in Snake and Scarlett. I sent them out a few hours ago; they're probably just about there. You can meet up with them and Wild Bill can bring all of you back."

"Right now we're sitting in a parking garage six blocks from the Twin's building." Breaker rattled off exact coordinates. "We're still waiting on Storm Shadow."

"No, you're not."

Both Jaye and Breaker yelped. Storm Shadow, slightly blood-spattered, was leaning casually against the driver's side door.

"What?" Flint sounded anxious. "Are you under attack?"

"No." Breaker scowled at the ninja, who ambled around and hopped in the back of the van. "Storm is just trying to give me some more gray hairs."

"You don't need my help."

"Shut up, Tommy." Jaye said absently. She took the communicator. "We're all here now. If you want to give us rendezvous coordinates, we can meet up with Wild Bill and the others. There isn't anything important in the van, so we can just abandon it."

"Good…I'll give you the frequency they're using, so you can talk to Bill directly. You can work out the details of meeting location with him; he'll know the good landing sites."

Ten minutes later, Jaye was driving and Breaker was getting instructions from Wild Bill, who had apparently just landed his Tomahawk. Storm Shadow had settled himself in the back of the van and immediately dozed off; how the man could sleep fully kitted out with swords, knives, throwing stars, and whatever else he carried was beyond Jaye. And she was Army, and was highly familiar with and approving of the old military saying 'Don't stand when you can sit, don't sit when you can lie down, and sleeping is always better than being awake.'

Seriously. Roll wrong or hit one good bump and you'd think he'd stab himself accidentally. But he seemed perfectly comfortable, wedged in between two duffel bags of gear and using a third as a pillow. Jaye shook her head, impressed.

Wild Bill had chosen a hayfield near a scrubby patch of woods twenty miles outside city limits as his landing site. Jaye pulled off the gravel road and into the field, and bumped around the patch of woods to the chopper sitting behind the trees. She cut the engine but left the keys in the ignition. The van was disposable, and whatever damage they may have done to the hapless farmer's field he could recoup by selling the vehicle.

Breaker turned and tossed an empty foam coffee cup at Storm Shadow. It bounced off his chest; the ninja cracked an eye open and glared at the tech.

"Wakey wakey!" Breaker seemed to be enjoying getting in some mild revenge for the ninja's regular habit of appearing right behind the tech just to watch him jump. The ninja just shook his head and hopped out of the van.

Breaker and Jaye followed, pausing long enough to shoulder their bags of equipment, and followed Storm Shadow to the waiting Tomahawk. Wild Bill leaned out of the chopper and waved enthusiastically.

"I've got me a disappointed ninja and redhead in the back, I'll have you know." The Texan grinned. "Snake was _all_ kinds of looking forwards to having to save your butt, Storm. Scarlett's been hoping that she'd be able to get her hands on the Twins again; she says she's been wanting to experiment with that whole 'feel each other's pain' thing in a little greater detail. Apparently involving her boot to their balls, one after the other."

Storm smirked. "My sword brother is going to be waiting a _long_ time if he thinks he's going to get to break me out of prison."

The side hatch of the chopper slid open. Scarlett waved. Snake leaned past her and held out a hand to help Breaker up; Storm hopped up into the helicopter without a problem. Scarlett reached out; Jaye let her friend help her into the chopper.

Doors secured, gear stowed, and strapped into their seats, Wild Bill took them up. Storm Shadow winced as soon as the ungodly racket of the chopper engine started up; the ninja's extraordinarily sensitive ears were not a blessing when riding in transports as noisy as a helicopter, which could be painful for someone half deaf.

Snake Eyes fished a pair of earplugs out of one of his pockets and tossed them to his sword brother. Looking grateful, Tommy tugged off his mask and popped them in.

*I was rather hoping to have to pull you out of the fire for once, you know.* Snake Eyes signed.

"Dream on." Storm Shadow snorted. "I've escaped from Alcatraz. The Twins' detention block is a cakewalk."

*But you were captured.* Snake pointed out. *Really? Captured by Crimson Guards? You're slipping, brother.*

"Bite me. Thirty men had firearms leveled at Breaker and Jaye; when you figure out how to kill that many men in the half a second it takes one to pull a trigger and drop your teammates, let me know."

"What happened to your face?" Scarlett said frankly.

Most people, wearing earplugs on a chopper, wouldn't have had a _clue _what anyone else was saying. As far as anyone on the Joe team could figure, though, earplugs simply reduced Storm Shadow's hearing to the level of a normal person. The ninja regularly hinted that he had no _idea_ how the lot of them could stand walking around half-deaf all the time.

Storm touched his bruised cheek. "To tell the truth, I've no idea. They sedated me. By the feel of it, they kicked me in the ribs a few times for good measure after I went down, too."

"I think that was where you hit the pavement after you got hit with the trank dart, actually." Breaker supplied helpfully. "You hit the ground pretty hard."

Scarlett raised her eyebrows. "Ouch."

"I'll live." Storm Shadow shrugged. "Considering what just the people in this helicopter have done to me, a few bruises and some skin off my knuckles is _nothing."_

Snake Eyes tilted his head. *Skin off your knuckles...you had to slip restraints, didn't you?*

Tommy nodded. "Cuffs. Hand and foot..." The ninja abruptly switched to Japanese. Snake Eyes listened with evident interest, interjecting occasionally with cryptic signs that apparently only Tommy understood. Jaye knew a little Japanese; just enough to realize that the two ninja were 'talking shop', but too little to get anything but that vague impression.

"Well, they won't listen to a word we say for awhile." Scarlett yawned. "I'm glad you two are safe. Storm, for all of his irritating tendencies, is a good guy to have on your side in a situation like that."

Jaye smiled. "He really is."

"Yeah. Scary, but saved my ass, so I'm not going to complain. Sure as hell beats having him on the _other_ side." Breaker searched through his pockets and suddenly looked morose. "Dammit...

Scarlett smirked, reached into one of the pockets in her BDUs, and extracted a handful of small, brightly wrapped objects. Breaker's face lit up. "Scarlett, you're an angel."

"I only brought it because we were afraid you'd be wounded and if you had a last request, it would be a fresh chunk of bubble gum." Scarlett tossed the gum to the tech. "Well, that or simply downloading your brain onto a hard drive somewhere."

"Nah. Technology to do that doesn't exist yet." Breaker popped a piece of gum into his mouth and chomped happily. "Maybe in ten years."

"Start cracking that, and your teeth come out." Storm Shadow said absently. "No, they were thorough. They actually got all my picks..." the ninja fell back into rapid Japanese.

Jaye closed her eyes and dozed off, smiling. She really did much prefer having Storm on their side; she wouldn't have slept quite so soundly at night if he'd still been with Cobra. Especially now, after she'd worked with him for a few years and had seen firsthand, many times, exactly what the ninja was capable of.

Finis.


End file.
